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FootBiz newsletter #115: Why the U-20 World Cup winners matter, CONMEBOL beef and 777 indicted
Plus: the UAE bid to buy Man United and Nou Camp delayed until December '27
Ed Malyon & Matt Hughes
October 21, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes
It might have escaped the notice of many, coinciding as it was with the return of domestic football this weekend and happening all the way over in Chile, but the Under-20 World Cup final was no insignificant event.
If you were so consumed by your favourite club finally playing again that you didn’t know, Morocco defeated Argentina in the final to become only the second African side to win (out of 24 editions of FIFA’s biggest age-group tournament).
Which sets things up rather nicely for the sometimes forgotten co-host of the 2030 World Cup, suggesting they have a generation of talent that is likely to shine on home soil when the eyes of the world are upon them.
Of course, due to the curious manoeuvring to ensure Saudi Arabia got the 2034 bid unopposed, Argentina are technically one of Morocco’s 2030 co-hosts too. Albeit, just for one game.
Whether it’s the feeling of having been duped by FIFA or simply a desire to grow the game/bank account, it is South America’s football executives (maybe now realising that they’ve taken CONMEBOL out of the hosting race for a whole cycle in return for three measly games in 2030) who had been pushing to further expand the 2030 competition. This, they say, would allow Argentina, Chile and Uruguay to host a group each (or all of the group stage, or perhaps some knock-out games please, sir) rather than the token fixture they had each agreed to as a nod to this being a century on from the first World Cup, held in Uruguay.
River Plate’s Estadio Monumental will host a World Cup game in 2030
The recent twist is that the proposed expansion of the World Cup to 64 teams is facing opposition from within CONMEBOL itself, even though the South American confederation would notionally benefit from staging the extra matches.
Seven out of the 10 CONMEBOL members have expressed concerns about the expansion plan, which is being driven Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina, according to The Guardian.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino met representatives from Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina at Trump Tower in New York last month for the first formal discussions about a proposal that was first raised informally by the Uruguayan Football Association at a Fifa Council meeting last March.
The delegation in New York was led by CONMEBOL president, Paraguayan Alejandro Dominguez, and also featured the Paraguay and Uruguay heads of state, as well as the presidents of their federations and Argentina’s.
What they hadn’t banked on were the fears their CONMEBOL counterparts have over the health of the World Cup qualifying competition, usually a 10-team round robin that provides much of the revenue for smaller nations during any given four-year cycle.
It is football’s modern conundrum: the money for the few vs the money for the many.
FIFA handing three games to CONMEBOL nations paved the way for Saudi 2034
By accepting those three centenary games on South American soil, the trio have effectively also robbed a CONMEBOL nation of a chance to host the biggest tournament in football during the following decade. There seems little chance that would ever be worth it.
For now, let’s just assume nothing will be changing and the games will largely be held in Spain (the country who will surely be favourites to win it), Portugal (who should go deep too) and now this intriguing Class of 2025 Moroccan team, an infusion of youth that can build on the last-four success of Morocco’s Yassine Bounou-inspired Class of 2022 in Qatar.
Beating six-time champions Argentina in the final (and France in the semis) is no joke. We are talking about two of the best talent factories on earth.
It has seemed for the past few weeks as if there weren’t many scouts or recruitment experts who weren’t in Chile for the tournament, trying to gather as much information as they could about tomorrow’s superstars.
One noted that Gianluca Prestianini was his player of the tournament, rather than the official pick, Watford’s Othmane Maamma. You have to assume winning player of the tournament at the U-20 World Cup should convince Watford to give him a go in the Championship but you can never be sure.
Another noted that Gilberto Mora was clearly the tournament’s best player, Mexico just exited early. Mora’s presence in Chile was interesting given the midfielder is already a regular for Tijuana and missed league games to allow scouts of the world’s biggest and richest clubs to see him up close. You can tell Rafaela Pimenta is working with the youngster when moves like that are being made.
All in all it sounds like a reasonably well-run tournament down in Chile. The sort of thing that sets you up to host an even bigger one down the line… assuming you didn’t lose the chance to do so in return for hosting one single fixture.
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